Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2016 | Page 18

YIT Mall of Tripla Little Manhattan 4 floor.

“But the entire concept here rises from
the unbeatable location: we are building the
best possible shopping centre for this particular location and for this demographic.”

Forget Downtown?
Admittedly, since the Mall of Tripla is
organically located on the top of the prime
artery in the land, the expectations run very
high indeed. Will Tripla have the power
to eclipse even the downtown Helsinki in
terms of attraction? – Only time will tell,
but Central Pasila certainly seems like a real
contender in the race.
It looks more than likely that during
the coming years, Pasila will emerge as “the
second city centre” for Helsinki – and an
even a more important transportation hub,
since the neighbourhood is expected to double its resident and job numbers by 2040.
Following on the heels of the Mall of Tripla,
there will be office space, apartments and
a hotel.
“The hotel is the next thing on our list.
In 2016, we will begin talking with operators
about the realisation of the hotel,” reveals
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Martikainen. “With regards to offices, the
area can feature as much as 50,000 square
metres of office premises.” There’s room for
both corporate headquarters and ultra-modern business parks here.

Going Up
Over-all, the construction project also covers the Pasila station and the adjacent public transport terminal. The City of Helsinki
has designated the former railway yard to
the north of Tripla for residential blocks,
which will have apartments for 3,000 residents. Named the Railyard Quarters, the residential area is rooted on modern, environmental solutions.
The City is eager to add also high-rise
buildings into the mix: on the southern side
of the Mall of Tripla, there could be several
towers with serious verticality.
Retooling old railyards for commercial use can be tricky, but Salo and Martikainen say that the project has been able to
overcome all obstacles so far: the zoning
procedures and building permits have been
cleared in schedule (or faster, even) and the

investor alliance is now in place – with tenants jumping to climb onboard.
“I would say that from commercial and
legal viewpoint we’ve dealt with the biggest
challenges – what remains is the construction,” Martikainen says.

Ready for the Challenge
That part won’t be easy, Tapio Salo admits:
“Looking at land construction, it’s
among the most demanding sites in Finland,
but we have our best people on the case and
are confident that the result will be tremendous.” One issue that needs to be dealt with
is building – in part – on top of the rails
which continue to be active.
Salo also credits the City of Helsinki which is committed to realising
Tripla Centre in a big way. Great collaboration with the City – as well as the other
local land owner, the state-owned Senate
Properties – is key in a project of this magnitude.
“We have been working together to
make all this happen and are very motivated to keep going forward,” Salo says. O